Hosea 10:1

The Divided Heart

I. What was meant by a divided heart?

A. Israel was still acknowledging God, but they were worshipping

Baal.

1. If they were polled it would have shown that 95% of

them believed in the existence of God.

2. 87% of them attended a worship service sometime during

the year.

3. 92% of them believed that religion was an important

part of a persons life.

4. 90% believed that they should have prayer in the

school.

B. Israel had been blessed by God and was a prosperous nation.

1. The problem was that they did not bring forth any

fruit to God.

2. They used their surplus funds to buy large screen

T.V's season tickets for the Angels; and a condo in

Aspen.

a. No the Bible doesn't say that, it just says

that they were using their surplus funds to

make altars and images to other gods.

b. But these other gods were representations of

Molech who was their god of pleasure.

c. Images of mammon who was their god of material

wealth.

d. Ashtoreth who was their sex goddess.

e. They were honest enough to admit that these

were the things that were really ruling their

lives.

f. These were the things that were really the top

priorities in their lives.

3. Thus they may go to synagogue on Saturday, read from

the Torah say a few prayers, then the rest of the

week, they pursued their own passions.

a. God forbid that the super bowl should come on

Sabbath, for they would have to miss

Synagogue.

b. Their hearts were divided, for they were

seeking to serve God and Mammon.

4. Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters, for he will

hate the one and love the other or he will hold to the

one and despise the other, you cannot serve God and

Mammon."

C. During the time of Joshua, as he was nearing death after

leading the people in the conquest of the land, he stood

before them and declared,

JOS 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this

day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers

served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the

gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me

and my house, we will serve the LORD.

D. Elijah stood before Israel the same nation that Hosea is

speaking to and said,

1KI 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye

between two opinions? if the LORD [be] God, follow him: but if

Baal, [then] follow him. And the people answered him not

a word.

E. In IIKings 17:33 it declares, "They feared the Lord but served

their own gods."

F. When Satan had taken Jesus to a high mountain and showed to

Him kingdoms of the world and suggested that if Jesus would

bow down and worship him he would give to him these kingdoms

and the glory of them, Jesus said to him, "Get out of here

Satan, it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and

Him only shalt thou serve."

ROM 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,

his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death,

or of obedience unto righteousness?

G. The divided heart is in actuality a lukewarm condition.

a. Being lukewarm is a combination of both hot and cold.

b. Jesus described the church of Laodicea as being

lukewarm

c. He declared that such a condition was intolerable to

Him, that He would spew them out of His mouth.

II. Do you have a divided heart today?

A. The difficulty in answering this question, for the heart is

deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can

know it?

1. The Lord says that He searches the heart to give to

every man according to the fruit of his doings.

2. Realizing all of this David prayed, "Search me O God

and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and

see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in

the way everlasting."

B. We also need to ask God to search our hearts, and to reveal to

us what He finds there. Is it a divided heart? Am I trying to

serve God and mammon?

C. Being in service here this morning is not a guarantee of a

singleness of heart toward the Lord.

1. While you are here, your mind can be roaming as you

plan your afternoon activities to rent some R rated

video and invite friends over for a beer party.

2. You may be in the house of the Lord this morning, but

in some bar tonight.

3. You may spend Sunday in church, but have no further

contact with God the rest of the week.

4. These are all symptoms of a divided heart.

D. David prayed, "Unite my heart to fear thy name."

1. O God give me a singleness of heart toward you.

2. Do not let me be in the place of deception where I

think that all I have to do is to attend church on

Sunday morning and everything is O.K.

E. The place of the divided heart is usually quite miserable.

1. You have too much of the Lord to be comfortable in the

world.

2. You have too much of the world to be happy in Jesus.

3. You are being pulled by the desires for Jesus and the

world at the same time.

III. The results of the divided heart.

A. God will not accept it.

1. As far as God is concerned, He wants all or nothing

at all.

2. He will not share His glory with another god.

3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all of thy

heart, soul strength and mind.

B. For Israel, they were to lose the kingdom. "Now they will say

we have no king."

C. Their god, the golden calve will be carried as a present to

the king of Assyria, and they will be taken captive.

D. The worship of false gods always leads to bondage.

IV. What can I do about a divided heart?

A. With David pray that God will unite your heart to serve Him.

B. Covenant with your heart, that you will serve only Jesus.